Irish potato planting runs from late March into early May

In Ireland, potatoes go in from late March to early May. First earlies go first, around St Patrick’s Day if the ground allows, then second earlies in April and maincrop by early May.

The date matters less than the soil. Plant when it’s dry enough to crumble rather than stick to your boots. In a wet spring, that might be April, and the potatoes will catch up.

These dates are for a typical lowland garden, with a last frost around 25 April. Dublin and the coast can start a week or two sooner. Inland and upland gardens, in the midlands or the hills of the west, run a week or two later.

Earlies, second earlies and maincrop

Type	Plant	Ready	Varieties
First earlies	Late March to mid-April	Mid-June to July	Home Guard, Duke of York
Second earlies	Early to late April	July to August	British Queen, Charlotte
Maincrop	Mid-April to early May	September to October	Rooster, Kerr’s Pink, Sarpo Mira

If space is short, grow earlies. They give new potatoes when shop ones are dear, and they’re usually lifted before blight takes hold.

Chitting

From February, stand seed potatoes in egg boxes, rose end up, somewhere light and frost-free. They grow short, green shoots that give them a head start. This matters most for earlies.

Planting

1. Dig in well-rotted manure or compost the autumn or winter before. Avoid lime, which encourages scab.
2. Plant seed potatoes 10 to 15 cm deep, shoots up.
3. Space them 30 cm apart, in rows 60 cm apart. Give maincrop a little more room if you can.
4. Cover them over and rake level.

The old Irish lazy bed, with seed potatoes laid on the ground and covered with sods dug from either side, still works well on heavy, wet ground.

Broad beans and French marigolds grow well beside potatoes. Keep them away from tomatoes, which share blight, and from squash, cucumbers and courgettes.

Earthing up

When the shoots are about 20 cm tall, draw soil up around them, leaving the top few leaves showing. Do it again two or three times as they grow. It keeps the tubers in the dark, gives more room for them to form, and protects early shoots if a late April frost is forecast.

Blight

Blight is the big one in Ireland’s mild, damp summers. It shows as brown patches on the leaves, often with a white edge underneath, and spreads fast in warm, wet weather.

Met Éireann publishes blight warnings through the summer. When one is out, check the plants every couple of days. If blight appears, cut off and remove all the stems, wait two weeks for the skins to set, then lift the crop. Blight-resistant varieties such as Sarpo Mira make maincrop far easier.

Lifting

Earlies are ready around flowering time, from mid-June. Lift a plant to check before digging more. For maincrop, cut down the stems when they yellow in September, leave the potatoes in the ground for two weeks, then lift them on a dry day. Let them dry for a few hours before storing them in paper sacks somewhere dark and frost-free.

Choose Ireland on the potato page for the full calendar, or grow a few in potato bags if your soil is heavy.